The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 08 eBook

CHAPTER XVI

ULI GETS NEW COWS AND NEW SERVANTS

[Uli is sent to market to sell two cows and bring
back two others. On the way a man catches up
with him and buys his cows at a higher price than
Uli expected to get. At the market he makes two
excellent purchases, and comes away with more money
than he had before. He is tempted to conceal
this profit from the master, and keep it for himself,
but better counsels prevail. Joggeli bids him
share the profit with the milker, and reluctantly
pays Uli’s expenses out of his own pocket.
He boasts to his wife that he has tested Uli by sending
a man to him to buy the old cows; she upbraids him
for this underhandedness. Uli forces Joggeli
to be the first farmer with his haying, but cannot
get him to supply decent tools. The other servants
are lazy and slack—­the milker and carter
especially so. Although Uli urges and drives him
in vain, Joggeli takes malicious enjoyment in his
distress. At last Uli loses all patience and
demands the instant dismissal of the carter and the
milker, his own departure being the alternative.
Joggeli is with difficulty persuaded to take this
step; but once taken, the good results are immediate
and permanent. The carter and the milker, at first
expecting to be taken back in a day or two, finally
beg for their old places; but Uli is firm. New
men are engaged, with instructions to take their orders
from Uli.]

CHAPTER XVII

HOW FATHER AND SON OPERATE ON A SERVANT

[Things now run like a newly oiled machine; but Joggeli
is discontented and constantly seeks cause for complaint
against Uli. He arranges with the miller to have
the latter attempt to bribe Uli, to see what he will
do. Uli dresses down the miller, and the latter,
to clear himself, betrays the instigator of the plan.
Uli at once begins to pack up, while the mistress,
informed by the miller, chides her husband. With
great difficulty the latter is induced to beg Uli’s
pardon and assure him that the offense will not be
repeated. The harvest goes on this year as never
before. Joggeli’s son Johannes comes with
his wife Trinette and three children for the harvest
festival. Trinette is the same kind of fool as
Elsie; they think of nothing but their finery, their
ailments, and their supposedly fine manners.
This annual visit is always a torment. Trinette
plays the grand lady, the children are a constant nuisance,
and the whole house is in an uproar. Johannes
takes a fancy to Uli, and offers him any amount of
pay to take a place with him. Freneli overhears
the conversation and tells the mistress, who is enraged
with Johannes. Joggeli bursts out into a tirade
against Freneli.]

CHAPTER XVIII

HOW A GOOD MOTHER STRAIGHTENS OUT THE CROOKED, AND TURNS EVIL INTO GOOD

[Joggeli sows in Uli’s mind suspicion of Freneli,
intimating that she is injuring him behind his back.
Uli is deeply wounded, and shows it; but neither Freneli
nor her aunt knows the reason, and Joggeli is silent.
Finally the mistress asks Uli, discovers the trouble,
and undeceives him as to Freneli; Joggeli wonders
at the restored peace, but dares not ask about it.]